DAILY MANIFESTO

PR Firm Gets Nasty Over Duke Nukem Reviews

Posted on Wednesday, June 15 @ 09:49:59 Eastern by Anthony Severino

We get most of our games for free. Part of it is because we're so damn cool. The other part is because PR reps want GR's seal of approval (our unbiased reviews) on their games.

That's one of the great things about our job. The bad part, is that both PR reps and publishers can get pissed when we hand out an exceptionally low grade. Most realize it's our job to be critical; we have a responsibility to our readers to point out a gem, or declare when something is pure shit.

Then there are some that just don't understand, and blame us for a game getting poor review scores. That's the sort of the case with what happened last night with Duke Nukem Forever.

The Redner Group broke an unwritten rule of the gaming industry last night when they said the following over their twitter account:

#AlwaysBetOnDuke too many went too far with their reviews…we r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom.

This quickly turned into something far less threatening:

Fair is great. Even if the score is poor, as long as the review is fair…I’ve got zero complaints.

The next morning my inbox, and likely the inbox of a number of other journalists, had a heartfelt apology waiting from Jim Redner, head of the PR firm.

Jim's a great guy, and I'm sure it's frustrating to see the game you've spent so long working with get torn to pieces in reviews. But here's the thing. The threat of blacklisting websites from getting future review copies is a huge no-no. It doesn't just make The Redner Group look bad, or Duke Nukem Forever look bad (and trust me, it looks bad), but it makes the publisher, 2K Games, look bad.

What likely happened was, the mere mention of blacklisting hard-working journalists, put The Redner Group at risk of being blacklisted themselves. But by 2K Games.

That's not to say that Jim Redner's apology wasn't genuine. I'm sure it was. I'm sure any comment made was instantly regretted, and was an act of frustration and anger. We've all been there. We all make mistakes. Especially when we're feeling attacked.

I'm posting this piece for a few reasons: To show some of what goes on behind the scenes in this industry, to show our readers that we put our necks on the line with each and every review we publish, and to clear Jim Redner's good name. Shit happens. He quickly realized the mistake, and apologized for it. That's more than what I can say for other PR reps and firms.

Our review of Duke Nukem Forever is coming soon, and sorry Jim, but it's likely filled with venom. The game sucks.

[Update] 2K Games has spoken out on Twitter stating that they don't condone the comments made by The Redner Group and are no longer have them representing 2K Games' products.

Related Games: Duke Nukem Forever

Tags: Duke Nukem

Comments

Diabolus
Joined: Nov 2008

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Any game can seem decent when you're pumped full of booze. So I've made sure to stock up before playing it.

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OniAkuma2126
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 10:42 am
Im not surprised the game is getting torn apart. I honestly kept my eyes on it for years waiting for release dates and information. 14 years of hype and wishful thinking as developer after developer attempted to pick it up and dust it off. Then finally a real company gets behind it. We see awesome clips of the game (( obviously now of its best...and rare moments )). As im sure Game Reviewers are truly gamers at heart and im positive that the ones that were assigned these games were looking forwards to it just as everyone else. And then their childhoods (( or teen years )) were bent over and given the Indiana Jones treatment.

1 2

OniAkuma2126
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 10:43 am
Only bad thing is that the Duke game didnt come with a Refridgerator to hide inside of when the explosion of horrible went off.

1 2

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 11:30 am
"Explosion of horrible" HAHA

1 1

SweetHat
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 11:03 am
OK i don't know who said it but they said it best
"You don't buy a Duke Nukem game for the story or the gameplay. You buy it for the Gore, Violence,Tits, Sex jokes, and One Liners"
Im already happy that i get to play it finally, even if it sucks, Magic '12 came out today and i can simply switch over when it pisses me off.

1 0

OniAkuma2126
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 12:44 pm
I'm almost sure that the reasons you paid for that game can be found online for free in the seedy, murky waters of everything Al Gore created.

1 1

SweetHat
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
Wow why do you hate america, last time i checked i was free to buy whatever the flock i want.

1 0

OniAkuma2126
Joined: Jun 2011

Posted: Jun 16th, 2011 at 7:48 am
Oh yes! I am such an Anti-American that i would tell someone not to purchase a shitty FPS game based on the promise of titties, blood, gore and foul language. (( Please read that with a sarcastic thought voice. )) Really?? Buy purchasing that horrible game you are just one person closer to them getting together as a team and ******** on yet another attempt at making Duke and all his Pre Arnold being a woman raper machoness come back from the dead.

1 0

nihm
Joined: Jan 2011

Posted: Jun 16th, 2011 at 6:35 am
If you want to play a game for gore, violence, tits, sex jokes, one liners (and drugs) then play the Saint's Row 2. Saint's Row 2 is actually good and even though there's lots of pimps and ho's it's probably the most socially progressive game on the market. Duke Nukem is sexist trash and people who like Duke Nukem are probably emotionally stunted individuals. Everything else in DNF is terrible as well, which is to be expected when a game is completely remade 5 times before it gets released. It's hard to believe people were excited about it.

1 1

devaldogz
Joined: Apr 2011

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 11:18 am
"…we r reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom"
Note: When you make a sh!tty game, you don't hurt anyone by threatening to not send them more crappy games. In fact, it's quite the opposite.
Keep up the good work Anthony, we appreciate it.

1 2

Tyrranis
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 3:04 pm
I'd probably believe the Redner group more if they had taken the time to spell it out in full.

Seriously, missing out the 'a' and 'e' in 'are' only makes you look like an immature whiner, instead of a select group of whiners.

1 0

sliverstorm
Joined: Jun 2007

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
On the plus side, journalists around the world are probably much happier about their pay when they compare it to the negative ten thousand dollars per WORD that idiot earned the Redner Group with his tweet.

Probably closer to one hundred thousand per word in future value, actually...

1 0

sliverstorm
Joined: Jun 2007

Posted: Jun 15th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
On the plus side, journalists around the world are probably much happier about their pay when they compare it to the negative ten thousand dollars per WORD that idiot earned the Redner Group with his tweet.

Probably closer to one hundred thousand per word in future value, actually...

1 0

filthybits
Joined: Mar 2011

Posted: Jun 20th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
I own a copy of Duke Nukem Forever (which I bought the day after it came out) and so far I like the game. It's a lot like 3D but better. I don't get what all this "venom" and "explosion of horrible" stuff is about. I normally I find the reviews on this site to be useful, but I'm calling bullshit on this one.

2 0

filthybits
Joined: Mar 2011

Posted: Jun 20th, 2011 at 2:43 pm
I own a copy of Duke Nukem Forever (which I bought the day after it came out) and so far I like the game. It's a lot like 3D but better. I don't get what all this "venom" and "explosion of horrible" stuff is about. I normally I find the reviews on this site to be useful, but I'm calling bullshit on this one.

1 1